Kuala Lumpur, February 16
Defying a ban, at least 200 ethnic Indian supporters of a Hindu rights group today held a rally near Malaysia’s Parliament demanding more rights for the minority community, prompting the police to fire tear gas and chemical-laced water to disperse the demonstrators.

The police said it detained at least 20 supporters of the non-governmental Hindu Rights Force (Hindraf), which organised the “illegal” rally, days after announcing plans that its members would march to the Parliament House along with a group of children led by the organisation’s chief Wayathamoorthy’s five-year-old daughter Vvaishnnavi.

Hindraf member and lawyer N. Surendran, however, claimed that at least 60 persons, including two leaders of the organisation, have been detained in a police crackdown since late last night.

The police had denied a permit to Hindraf to hold the rally outside the Parliament and had set up barricades along main roads leading to the building.

Notwithstanding the ban, some 200 persons managed to gather at a nearby building shouting “long live Hindraf” and “le want our rights.”

The police sprayed chemical-laced water and tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Vvaishnnavi wanted to present roses to premier Abdullah Badawi and had last month written a letter to him urging him to be present at the Parliament House to receive the Valentine flowers from her and other children. — PTI

Former premier Nawaz Sharif has said he will speak his mind on the question of giving safe exit to President Pervez Musharraf only after the forthcoming elections.

He, however, said trial under Article 6 of the Constitution of those who had abrogated the sacred basic legal framework of the country was a must to permanently block the future martial laws.

In an informal talk with a group of journalists here, Nawaz Sharif said only the restored judiciary would be in a position to try those, who under Article 6 of the Constitution had committed high treason.

The Article says any person, who abrogates or attempts or conspires to abrogate, subverts or makes attempts to subvert the Constitution by use of force or show of force or by other unconstitutional means shall be guilty of high treason.

Lufkin (US), February 16
A doctor living in Texas has agreed to be returned to Britain, where she faces a manslaughter charge in a patient’s death a decade ago.

Prosecutor John Ratcliffe said Dr Priya Ramnath waived extradition at a court hearing yesterday in Texas. The native of India was ordered to surrender to the US marshals on February 22.

Her attorney did not immediately return a call to The Associated Press seeking comment.

Ramnath, 39, is an anaesthesiologist and is accused of giving a lethal dose of adrenaline to an intensive care patient in 1998 at a hospital in England. By the time she was charged with manslaughter in 2003, she was living and working as a doctor in the US. — AP

Washington, February 16
The trilateral Indo-US-Japan interaction was not aimed at forging a new grouping but cooperating in various avenues like countering terrorism and responding to global pandemics and natural disasters, Indian ambassador Ronen Sen has said.

Noting that the three democracies have a tradition of contributing to the international system, he said, their interaction evolved from growing recognition of convergence of their ideals and interests and the desirability of channelling these in a constructive and cooperative direction.

“Whether it is foreign aid, technical assistance or responding to global challenges, none of the three have pursued mercantilism approaches. This determines in many ways the agenda for developing the trilateral relationship,” Sen told the Japan Society in New York yesterday, adding the trilateral interaction did not emerge from a decision to forge a new grouping or alliance.

“Issues ranging from countering international terrorism, responding to global pandemics and natural disasters, protecting the environment, addressing illegal trafficking in narcotics, arms and people, promoting stability and prosperity, are among the many avenues of enhanced cooperation between India, Japan and the USA.” — PTI

Chicago, February 16
Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, who “risked his life” seeking to set records in high-tech balloons, gliders and jets and his second around-the-world balloon attempt ended in India, has been declared dead, five months after he vanished while flying in a small plane.

The self-made business tycoon, who, in 2002, became the first person to circle the world solo in a balloon, was last seen September 3 after taking off in a single-engine plane from an airstrip near Yerington, Nevada, heading toward Bishop, California. He was 63.

At the request of his wife, Peggy V. Fossett, a judge declared Fossett legally dead in Cook County Circuit Court as a step toward resolving the legal status of his estate, said her attorney, Michael LoVallo. Judge Jeffrey Malak heard testimony yesterday from Peggy Fossett, a family friend and a search-and-rescue expert before deciding that there was sufficient evidence to declare him dead.

While flight records brought him his greatest fame, Fossett, who was paunchy for most of his life, also climbed some of the world’s best-known peaks, including the Matterhorn in Switzerland and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. — AFP

Moscow, February 16
The body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin can be preserved for another 100 years, if no decision was taken to remove it from the Lenin Mausoleum in the Red Square.

Yuri Denisov-Nikolsky, who looks after the body, told Russian news agencies that if the body received proper care, it could remain in the Mausoleum for another 100 years.

Lenin’s body has been on display in the Mausoleum just outside the Kremlin since 1924. In 2001, President Vladimir Putin said he opposed the removal of body from its marble tomb because it might disturb civil peace in the country.

Recently, high-ranking allies of Putin have floated the idea of burying Lenin to which the President said he would support a solution that would lead to the “reconciliation and unity of the nation, not a schism”. Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin -- a far more vocal critic of the Communists and the Soviet era -- strongly pushed for removing Lenin’s body from the Mausoleum, but was stopped by vigorous opposition from the Communist Party and others. — UNI